I have been asked by hon. Members sitting near me to say a few words expressing their complete agreement with this Motion. I shall confine myself to the Motion and shall not enter into the wider survey of the war which the Prime Minister has made. There are only two points in regard to the Motion which I would call to the attention of the House. The linking of this vote of thanks to our Navy, Army and Air Force with the campaign in Africa and in the Mediterranean appears to me to be based on what I would venture to describe as profound strategical insight, because I take it that it is now clear that the campaign in Africa, and particularly the campaign for the defence of Egypt, whatever may happen in the Balkans and elsewhere, is already bound to be one of the three or four decisive turning-points in the history of the war.

We may have, as the Prime Minister said, our dark and bright moments, but it has always been fairly clear that Hitler's best chance of success in this war was the conquest of Egypt. Had he done that, we should have lost Alexandria, which is our only base for a fleet; we should have had to clear out of the Mediterranean; he would have had opened to him the oil of Irak and Iran and the raw materials of the near East; and he would have been able to get round the back of the British blockade. In these circumstances he may very well have so dug himself in that it is difficult to know when we could have pushed him out, and he would have had his best prospects of turning the war into a stalemate, which, with his control over Europe, would in fact have been a victory. That prospect was destroyed by our troops, who have shown in that process that the modern members of our nation have a sheer fighting power which has never been surpassed in the whole history of war.

There is only one other feature of the Motion which I would call to the attention of the House. I am pleased to notice that the thanks to the Armed Forces are linked up with thanks to the British people as a whole. The campaign in Africa and the Mediterranean has, in fact, been a test of the quality of the entire nation. It has been a great industrial operation. I recollect that in reading the accounts of the defence of Sidi Barrani it was pointed out that the troops relied not only on their own endurance, but to an equal extent on the complete reliability of the tanks, on which their lives depended, made by ordinary British workers. The tanks did not let them down, and the men who made them are among the victors of Africa. Putting it all together—the workers in the workshops, the soldiers in the field, the army commanders and the Higher Command—the experience of the last few months entitles us to say that the British people under our form of democratic government have reached a higher level of practical efficiency than we have ever before achieved.

I should like to mention something which has greatly impressed me. I think that our thanks are due to another great section. After the battle of Dunkirk we had here only four fully equipped divisions, while Hitler had over 200. Practically the whole world thought we were going the same way as France. In that hour of peril, however, our troops were deliberately sent to Egypt, and our Air Force and Fleet in the Mediterranean were reinforced. In my opinion that decision was one of the turning-points of the war. It showed that a number of men sitting quietly round a table in London may frequently have to come to a determination which, for courage in its own sphere, is as great as that needed on the battlefield itself. The thanks of the nation are due to the group of men who made that decision. These are some of the reasons why my hon. Friends wish to associate themselves completely with this Motion.